ArticlePLoS biology2016
Characterization of Greenbeard Genes Involved in Long-Distance Kind Discrimination in a Microbial Eukaryote.
Article in PLoS biology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 71 citations in OpenAlex.
- STRIPAK-associated greenbeard proteins DOC1 and DOC2 regulate MAK2 signaling and sexual development in Sordaria macrospora.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Temperature duringbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- A gradient green-beard gene in fission yeast.EMBO reports · 2026Article
- Heterotrimeric G-proteins and cAMP regulate gene expression during growth on cellulose inmBio · 2026Article
- Regulated cell death in fungi from a comparative immunology perspective.Cell death and differentiation · 2026Review
- Identification of regions required for allelic specificity at the cell wall remodeling allorecognition checkpoint in Neurospora crassa.Genetics · 2025Article
- Decoding fungal communication networks: molecular signaling, genetic regulation, and ecological implications.Functional & integrative genomics · 2025Review
- Emergence of the fungal immune system.iScience · 2023Review
- Knowing friend from foe.eLife · 2022Article
- Article
- Characterizing the gene-environment interaction underlying natural morphological variation in Neurospora crassa conidiophores using high-throughput phenomics and transcriptomics.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2022Article
- Use of Bulk Segregant Analysis for Determining the Genetic Basis of Azole Resistance in the Opportunistic PathogenFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2022Article
- Starvation-induced cell fusion and heterokaryosis frequently escape imperfect allorecognition systems in an asexual fungal pathogen.BMC biology · 2021Article
- Regulation of biotic interactions and responses to abiotic stresses by MAP kinase pathways in plant pathogenic fungi.Stress biology · 2021Review
- Article
- Somatic deficiency causes reproductive parasitism in a fungus.Nature communications · 2021Article
- Search for MHC/TCR-Like Systems in Living Organisms.Frontiers in immunology · 2021Article
- Syncytia in Fungi.Cells · 2020Review
- Antagonistic interactions subdue inter-species green-beard cooperation in bacteria.Journal of evolutionary biology · 2020Article
- Fungal social barriers: to fuse, or not to fuse, that is the question.Communicative & integrative biology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Microorganisms are capable of communication and cooperation to perform social activities. Cooperation can be enforced using kind discrimination mechanisms in which individuals preferentially help or punish others, depending on genetic relatedness only at certain loci. In the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa, genetically identical asexual spores (germlings) communicate and fuse in a highly regulated process, which is associated with fitness benefits during colony establishment. Recognition and chemotropic interactions between isogenic germlings requires oscillation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signal transduction protein complex (NRC-1, MEK-2, MAK-2, and the scaffold protein HAM-5) to specialized cell fusion structures termed conidial anastomosis tubes. Using a population of 110 wild N. crassa isolates, we investigated germling fusion between genetically unrelated individuals and discovered that chemotropic interactions are regulated by kind discrimination. Distinct communication groups were identified, in which germlings within one communication group interacted at high frequency, while germlings from different communication groups avoided each other. Bulk segregant analysis followed by whole genome resequencing identified three linked genes (doc-1, doc-2, and doc-3), which were associated with communication group phenotype. Alleles at doc-1, doc-2, and doc-3 fell into five haplotypes that showed transspecies polymorphism. Swapping doc-1 and doc-2 alleles from different communication group strains was necessary and sufficient to confer communication group affiliation. During chemotropic interactions, DOC-1 oscillated with MAK-2 to the tips of conidial anastomosis tubes, while DOC-2 was statically localized to the plasma membrane. Our data indicate that doc-1, doc-2, and doc-3 function as "greenbeard" genes, involved in mediating long-distance kind recognition that involves actively searching for one's own type, resulting in cooperation between non-genealogical relatives. Our findings serve as a basis for investigations into the mechanisms associated with attraction, fusion, and kind recognition in other eukaryotic species.
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